Tunnelling into Britain

12:00AM GMT 20 Feb 2001

EUROSTAR may be having trouble attracting custom, but the Channel Tunnel is busier than ever.

Last year 5,425 sans-papiers were detained by Eurotunnel, an indication of how many must be getting through undetected. Some have suffered great hardships on their way, and many have the best of motives for seeking a new life in Britain. But all have one thing in common: they are not in need of political refuge. We know this because they are seeking to reach Britain from France - a country that does not systematically persecute its citizens.

Why, then, are they not immediately returned there? The answer is in three parts. First, Britain is now bound by an EU treaty called the Dublin Convention. This lays down the principle that an asylum applicant should be the responsibility of the first EU state he reaches, not of the one where he happens to demand sanctuary. In practice, this means that the Immigration Service must prove that any given claimant did not pass through another EU country on his way to France. Understandably, neither the French authorities nor the applicants themselves are likely to co-operate in proving this.

Second, under the terms of the 1951 Geneva Convention, we are obliged to assess every asylum claim individually. Some signatories discharge this obligation by assessing, at the border, whether the applicant is coming from a safe country and, if so, refusing him entry. But Britain interprets the accord more generously, and allows even manifestly false claimants a reasonable hearing. Third, our judges seem incapable by disposition of evicting people. In one recent case, an Algerian national who had lived for years in France overturned his deportation order from Britain on the ground that, if he were returned to France, France would then repatriate him to Algeria. In other words, the court ruled that even France could not be considered a safe country.

In the circumstances, it is hardly surprising that tens of thousands of people are prepared to traverse the entire Continent in order to lodge their claims in Britain. They know that, once here, they will never be asked to leave. The French border authorities know it, too, which is why they are sometimes cavalier about policing their own frontiers. Until Britain takes back control over its own asylum policy, it cannot even begin to tackle the problem.